This invention relates to a method of packaging a beverage and particularly concerns beverages containing gas in solution and packaged in a sealed container which, when opened for dispensing or consumption of the beverage, permits gas to be evolved or liberated from the beverage to form, or assist in the formation of, a head or froth on the beverage. The beverages to which the invention relates may be alcoholic or non-alcoholic and will be packaged in a two chambered container so that when the container is opened, gas and/or beverage from one chamber is ejected into beverage in the other chamber to cause gas in solution in the beverage to evolve and form a head of froth. Advantages which are to be derived from such two chambered beverage packages and methods of packaging the beverage in the containers are discussed in our British Patent Specification No. 2,183,592A. A further example of a two chambered beverage package of the type referred to is disclosed in our British Patent Specification No. 1,266,351 (which is also referred to in the aforementioned G.B. No. 2,183,592A).
The method of packaging the beverage in a two chambered container as proposed in G.B. No. 1,266,351 was found to be unacceptable commercially in view of difficulties experienced in gas pressurising one of the chambers in the container and efficiently sealing the container following such pressurisation. On the contrary, however, the preferred method of packaging the beverage disclosed in G.B. No. 2,183,592A in which one of the two chambers is provided by a hollow pod which is inserted within the container has met with considerable commercial success. Nevertheless, this latter packaging method is inconvenient and relatively expensive in so far as a conventional beverage container/packaging line has to be modified considerably, especially to provide for the insertion of the pre-formed hollow pods into the container prior to the container being charged with its required volume of beverage. It is an object of the present invention to provide an efficient method of packaging a beverage in a two chambered container as broadly envisaged by the disclosure in G.B. No. 2,183,592A and which method alleviates the requirement for inserting a hollow pod into a pre-formed container as a means for forming one of the chambers.